Solutions that don’t break the bank, reinvent the wheel or marginalize our teachers are within our grasp. We could have rigorous classes, safe and disciplined schools and treat teachers like valued colleagues rather than easily replaceable cogs, and we could do so tomorrow if we wanted. Disclaimer, this is an opinion and commentary site and should not be confused as a news site. Also know that quite often people may disagree with the opinions posted.

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Thursday, April 4, 2013

Common Core will provide the bullets for the parent trigger

If you have been following Tallahassee recently you know that the DOE has made a mess of how they grade schools. Constant changes to the formula mean nobody knows exactly where they are or where they will be when the system is finally decided upon. Take last year for instance when they decided schools would only be able to fall two letter grades whether they deserved to fall farther or not.

So when the supporters of the parent trigger bill say it will only affect 25 schools or so, the truth is it will most likely effect a lot more. Then once we add common core to the mix, the system designed to toughen the standards that bring a whole new set of standardized tests with it, who knows how many schools will now be eligible for the parent trigger. Some estimates say the number will be in the hundreds.

Two things, some of you might be thinking, failing schools should be taken over. Well friends as long we ignore poverty any improvement will be slow but at the end of the day who do you want working with the kids a corporation whose bottom line is the bottom line or professional educators.

Then shouldn’t the solution be to fix our problems, to provide the resources that mitigate poverty, rather than giving away the public’s resources to for profit companies. Doesn’t that make more sense?

The common core will undoubtedly cause problems and school grades to drop and the powers-that-be in Tallahassee have acknowledged this. So yes right now the parent trigger might just affect a handful of schools but who knows how many it will in the future.

My bet is a lot more and I think the Florida legislature and their charter school backers are betting on it too.